Welcome to the Adventure

Something Greater Than “God’s Plan”

This is the time of year when every white girl with a blog posts some sappy story that ultimately states that GPA doesn’t matter to God and how you can’t mess up his plan so relax. (And I may or may not have done this before) Which is true, God is watching out for you. But that doesn’t really take away the pain and stress of being on your fourth Red Bull of the night, and hour 32 of living in the library.

Sure, knowing that God has your back helps a little but no bible verse is going to give you the sleep you crave or the grade you need to get into that med school, stay off academic probation, or simply keep you from having to re-take that class. And if by chance you end up failing your final, failing that class, or even failing out of school. Knowing that God has a plan for your life may ease the uncertainty your future holds but it still stings that you failed. No magic verse will change that, even Jesus himself grew weary during his time on earth.

What I do find comfort in during this finals week is much deeper than the cliché “God has a plan” message that is passed around in the Christian bubble. I find comfort that God has my back and that he may be testing me or tempting me at times but at the end of the day he will not push me too far and allow me to break. God never promised us an easy life. Before Jesus was crucified he promised that, “In the world you will have tribulation.” Guaranteeing that no matter how good of a Christian you are or how many bible verses you memorize, your life will suck at times. After all we do live in a flawed world. But immediately after this not so hot promise Jesus continues to say, “take heart I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

So yes, you can rest easy knowing that God has your back. But what I am trying to get at is much deeper than that. Earlier in John chapter 16 Jesus tells a story about how when a “woman gives birth she has sorrows.” But after the trials and pains of giving birth in 20 A.D. without an epidural, the mother “no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into this world.”(John 16:21) Jesus then goes on to connect this story to the how his disciples will have sorrows soon (spoiler alert Jesus is about to die), but eventually their sorrow will be replaced with joy. Showing that yes life can be rough, but sometimes those rough patches are needed. Jesus the greatest and only perfect human to ever live, died a painful death via public execution. But without this sorrowful and painful death the great promise and joy I have as a Christian would not be fulfilled. I would not have eternal hope, nor a personal and uplifting relationship with God.

The pain and struggles that God is putting you through today is to strengthen you and bring you joy tomorrow (please note this tomorrow is an arbitrary place holder for a time in the future, if you are like me and have an O Chem final tomorrow this joy I am talking about is not happening tomorrow). Yes you are stressed and you are tired which is okay because you are a human, even Jesus was tired during his time on earth. But take heart in knowing that pass or fail, God will not give you too much. He is simply making you a better you. So keep studying, keep striving, maybe lay off the caffeine a little, and remember that your trials of today are your strengths of tomorrow.

As always, make good choices, share if you like what I said, comment if you have something to add, give that follow button a hit, and I will see you on Thursday.